MATH 322/422 - Abstract Algebra

Fall 2012 

Professor: Dr. Janet Vassilev
Office: SMLC 324

Office Hours:  MF 2 pm-3 pm, W 9 am and by appointment.
Telephone: (505) 277-2214
email: jvassil@math.unm.edu

webpage: http://www.math.unm.edu/~jvassil

Text :  A First Course in Abstract Algebra, 7th Edition  By John Fraleigh.

Course Meetings:  The course lectures will be held in SMLC 356 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10-10:50 am. 

Topics:  Groups, rings, homomorphisms, permutation groups, quotient structure, ideal theory, fields.

Daily Quizzes (100 points): The first 5 minutes of everyday (excluding exam days) will consist of an open notebook quiz on the concepts of the previous lecture. The quizzes will be worth 5 points each. I will drop your 4 lowest quizzes and average the remaining quizzes to obtain a score out of 100.

Homework (200 points):  Homework will be assigned weekly on Wednesdays and will be collected the following Wednesday at the beginning of class.  Homework will not be graded unless it is written in order and labeled appropriately.   The definitions and theorems in the text and given in class are your tools for the homework proofs. If the theorem has a name, use it. Otherwise, I would prefer that you fully describe the theorem in words that you plan to use, than state by Theorem 3.  Each week around 4 of the assigned problems will be graded. The weekly assignments will each be worth 20 points. I will drop your lowest two homework scores and the remaining homework will be averaged to get a score out of 200. 

Exams (400 points):  I will give two midterms (100 points) and a final (200 points). There are no make up exams. If a test is missed, notify me as soon as possible on the day of the exam. For the midterms only, if you have a legitimate and documented excuse, your grade will be recalculated without that test.  The Midterms are tentatively scheduled for Monday September 24 and Monday, November 5.  The Final is on Friday, December 14, from 7:30 am-9:30 am. 

Grades:  General guidelines for letter grades (subject to change; but they won't get any more strict): 90-100% - A; 80-89% - B; 70-79% - C; 60-69% - D; below 60% - F.  In assigning Final Grades for the course, I will compare your grade on all course work (including the Final) and your grade on the Final Exam.  You will receive the better of the two grades.

Tentative Schedule (for Dr. Vassilev's Abstract Algebra):

Date

Section

Topic

Homework

8/20

0

Sets and Relations

 

8/22

0

Cardinality and Equivalence relations

0: 12(b, d, f), 26, 31, 32, 34, 36

2: 2, 4, 8, 12, 13, 24, 27, 28, 37

8/24

2

Binary Operations

 

8/27

2

Binary Operations

 

8/29

3

Isomorphic Structures

3: 2, 4, 6, 12, 15, 24, 27, 31

4: 10, 20, 22, 25, 29, 32, 35

8/31

4

Groups

 

9/5

4, 5

More on groups and subgroups

5: 4, 7, 16, 18, 20, 26, 36, 39, 47, 51, 53, 54

9/7

6

Cyclic groups

 

9/10

6

Cyclic Groups

 

9/12

6,7

Cyclic groups and Finitely generated groups

5: 55

6: 6, 10, 18, 22, 32, 34, 35, 44, 46, 47, 50

7: 4, 6

9/14

7,8

Finitely generated groups and dihedral groups

 

9/17

8

Dihedral groups

 

9/19

8

Groups of permutations

8:  2, 5, 6, 8, 12, 16, 35, 36, 40, 42, 48

9/21

 

Review

 

9/24

 

Midterm 1

 

9/26

9

Orbits, cycles and alternating groups

9:  2, 3, 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, 23, 29, 31, 34

9/28

9

Orbits, cycles and alternating groups

10/1

10

Cosets and Lagrange


10/3

10

Cosets and Lagrange

10:  2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 19, 26, 30, 32, 33, 39

10/5

11

Direct Products and Finitely generated abelian groups


10/8

11

Direct Products and Finitely generated abelian groups


10/10

13

Homomorphisms

11:  4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 24, 32, 36, 38, 39, 40, 46, 50

10/15

13

Homomorphisms


10/17

14

Factor Groups

13:  3, 5, 8, 18, 19, 22, 28, 32, 34, 36, 44, 45, 49, 50

14:  2, 6, 12, 13, 23

10/19

14

Factor Groups


10/22

15

More on Factor Groups


10/24

16

Group Actions

14:  21, 22, 26, 27, 31, 34

15:  2, 4, 8, 12, 14, 19, 28, 37

10/26

16

Group Actions


10/29

16

Group Actions


10/31

17

Group Actions and Counting

16:  1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 12, 14

17:  1, 2, 7

11/2

 18

Rings


11/5

 

Review

 

11/7


Midterm 2


11/9

18

 Rings


11/12

19

Integral Domains

11/14

20

Fermat's and Euler's Theorems

18: 10, 12,  15, 16, 24, 33, 39, 40, 44, 50

19: 6, 10, 17,  27, 29

11/16

21

Field of Quotients


11/19

21

Fields of Quotients


11/21


Class cancelled


11/26

26

Factor Rings and Ideals


11/28

27

Prime and Maximal Ideals

20: 4, 12, 14, 23

21: 4, 12

26: 2, 10, 12, 13, 18, 20, 26, 30

27: 2, 14, 16, 28, 34

11/30

22

Polynomial Rings

 

12/3

23

Factorization of polynomials

 

12/5

 

Review

 

12/7

 

Review

 

12/14

 

Final exam

 7:30 am